China Herald

The importance of the internet in China - Paul Denlinger

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:58:00 +0000

BBS: popular in China
via WikipediaPaul Denlinger tries it again at his weblog: trying to explain to the outside world how important the Internet is to understand China. Especially the BBS, more so than weblogs.

Most westerners who come into the China Internet market have no idea of its power and influence, and instead think that the Chinese Internet is largely the same as the US market, but it isn’t. The Chinese government doesn’t really like BBSes because it really is free (as in free speech), and is the breeding ground for all kinds of weird stuff.

At Chinabiz Speakers we made sure we had a whole row of prominent speakers on the Internet in China, not only Paul Denlinger, but also Jeremy Goldkorn, Isaac Mao, Kaiser Kuo and others, but we got very few assignments in this category.

The newly-found power of the Chinese workers

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:44:00 +0000

The Washington Post gives a good overview of the impacts of the new Labor Contract Law for workers in China, and its effects on companies. (h/t China Law Blog) The tables have turned, the article says.

It has added to the rising cost of doing business in China -- contributing to an exodus of what is estimated to be thousands of factories from places like the Pearl River Delta in southern China, for 20 years synonymous with cheap and abundant labor and the engine behind China's rapid growth.

What is does wrong it putting too much of the praise or blame - depending what side you are on - on that law. While that is certainly having an effect, the labor shortage in provinces like Guangdong is having a much more profound effect, illustrated in the article by the easy for workers to find a new job when they decided to quit.

When getting off - picture

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Shanghaiist comes with this beautiful example of pure Chinglish that indeed should be protected. Long gone are the days at the end of the 1980s, beginning of the 1990s when police officers organized "concerned citizens" to hunt homosexuals and other kissing people in the parks.

Chinese enthusiasm for the Olympic flame

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:17:00 +0000

ESWN has been collecting some great pictures from along the route the Olympic torch is following in China itself. The massive enthusiasm is really overwhelming and shows also why any protests, if planned, would be suicidal. You are not going to explain those people you have a problem with the Olympics or otherwise.

A new tool for translating Chinese, and English

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:29:00 +0000

by TR4NSLATOR via FlickrLast year I had a go at Google Translate and was not enthusiastic about the results. Gemme at Shanghai China Snippets now advises to download a new tool for translating Chinese-English-Chinese.
For this new tool Google teamed up with the Chinese company Kingsoft and that might have a positive effect on the whole systems. I just started to download the stuff and will give a review later. Any experiences are welcome here. You can go here for the download directly.

Update: it is a bit of a download: 23 Mb and the download process is far from flawless.

Olympic flames doused in Shenzhen?

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:21:00 +0000

Earlier, in Ohio
via WikipediaUnknown protestors have attacked successfully the Olympic torch relay in the South Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to this report in the Asia Sentinel.

The protesters’ motives were unknown. As the unsuspecting crowd cheered Beijing’s Olympic success, an eyewitness heard one of the two men, both of them Chinese, say “mission accomplished” after the torch was put out. Chinese television, which was filming the progress of the torch, hurriedly cut away. Television presenters said the transmission was having technical problems. However, the eyewitness was able to film the disturbance and made it available to Asia Sentinel. The film is being prepared for publication and was to be put on the site later today.

The relay of the Olympic flames was stopped for about an hour, according to the report, then the flames was relit and continued. I was first warned through a twitter from Danwei, supporting twitter's usage as a journalistic tool. More will follow later today.

Update I: Danwei has been looking for more support of the story in the Asia Sentinial but has not find anything yet.
Update II: Here is another update from Shenzhen, but no mentioning of this incident.
Update III: An overwhelming lack of supporting evidence continues.
Update IV: Still no supporting footage and more eyewitness reports that suggest that this Asia Sentinel story is rather unlikely. I have seen now some pictures where it was extremely busy with supporters. Any action against the flame would have been suicidal.

SCMP opens its Olympic site

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:04:00 +0000

One of the most profitable papers
by ctarda via FlickrIt's a bit like a dinosaur you think is dead already suddenly starts farting. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has started an Olympic site and it is not behind a firewall, like the rest of the Hong Kong paper. At Danwei they discovered this, so perhaps somebody is there still paying to get access to the paper.
And there is even an rss-feed!
To put this new media discussion a bit in perspective. Up to not so long ago there were two schools among the traditional media that went online. Most offered their content for free, getting money from ads, while another section charge for the access.
The last group has been dying out, since the business model was rather unattractive now much of the information is available for free online.Also, to be part of the increasingly online debate, a firewall would limit access and most bloggers (like me) would not link to the SCMP, since most of my readers would not be able to read it anyway.
The South China Morning Post is despite ongoing losses that are common in this doomsday industry still one of the most profitable dailies. Also the Hong Kong flagship is in trouble, after revenue streams came under fire, but they can still afford to allow the reality as it is emerging in the rest in the world. The traditional newspaper is on its way out and unless you have a decent online strategy, papers will not survive.
I hope the Olympic site is an effort to change the tide, I believe it is still not too late for the SCMP.

Chongqing on steriods

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:38:00 +0000

City Hall Chongqing
via WikipediaYou might never have heard of Chongqing, when you are living outside China and Current.com is doing a nice effort to introduce the Chicago of China to that audience that is only beginning to discover what China is about.
This is what Kai Hasson, their coordinator writes:

It's part of the central government's plan to bring some of China's economic boom to its impoverished interior province where three out of four Chinese live. Our journalists on the ground go on a whirlwind tour of the city---from inside a cramped boarding house where migrant workers to inside a starter apartment of China's new class of yuppies. It¹s really an incredible piece.

Later today there will be more detailed report, for starters, here is their promo.

Beijing bans Pinocchio for security reasons

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:59:00 +0000

Better stick to Chinese culture
via WikipediaI always thought that the story of Pinocchio was a pretty fishy one, but that suspicions has now been confirmed. The authorities in China's capital Beijing have banned a play based on the story of our wooden hero Pinocchio, at least the is what the Dutch daily De Telegraaf understands from one of their Italian colleagues.
The story does not indicate what dilligent government department has issued the ban, but I see here the trademark of the Ministry of Culture, who is always eager to protect its citizens against foreign attacks on the Chinese culture. And say now yourself, would you like to expose the Chinese to this moralistic story saying that telling the truth would basically be the right thing to do? That would be very disruptive.

All is not well at the TD-SCDMA

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:32:00 +0000

One dream less
via WikipediaYou might remember this acronym: TD-SCDMA. Some years ago I learned how to pronounce it flawless as the China-based 3G service was moving ahead to compete with existing European and American solutions for the third generation mobile phones. It was a highly political enterprise, since it seemed that for the first time China was able to set up a global standard.
The Beijing Olympic games in 2008 were then set a the moment for the 3G service to be fully deployed, so we could all see the games on the new mobile phones. But as 2007 moved on the issue of 3G mobile phone licenses and TD-SCDMA itself remained in murky bureaucratic waters; the Olympic Games disappeared as a deadline.
Now I read in China CSR that Commit, a major player in this field had stopped to halt its operation, facing a bankruptcy. It owned its employees RMB 20 million (€2 million) in backpayments and has negotiated a deal with the trade union to pay the money back.

Established in February 2002, Commit Incorporated consists of 17 industrial enterprises, including China Putian Corporation, China Academy of Telecommunications Technology, Texas Instruments (China), Nokia (China) Investment Co. Limited, LG Electronics, Inc., and Hyper Market International Limited.

This sounds like the beginning of the end of TD-SCDMA. That means a lot of Chinese dreams will be shattered.

Guangdong wants wages to raise 12%

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:07:00 +0000

Shanghai youth,
not interested in exploitive wages
via WikipediaMarket Watch is reporting, very briefly, on the plan by Guangdong Province to lift wages of all employees by 12 percent this year. It is part of a bigger plan by provincial officials to improve the employment situation, as is here reported by the official news agency Xinhua. The plan is to create 1.2 million news jobs and give migrant workers a more equal position.
The story is neatly packed in politically-correct parlance on the new Labor Contract Law, but the ongoing shortage of migrant workers to fuel Guangdong's export might be a bigger cause for concern. Since a few years economic hotbeds in southern China do not attract enough migrant workers for their manufactering operations.
An improved situation at the country side have offered many migrant workers an alternative from working in China's booming export industry. A report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) found that old assumption on the number of available migrant workers, typically estimated between 150 and 200 million, was only slight more than 50 million.
The report saw in 2009 a new turning point where the shortage for migrant workers would be a nationwide problem, not only limited to southern China. That means that provinces will have to rely on their existing labor force more than in the past. Those local could only be enticed to do this work for a higher salary and better working conditions.
Many of the manufactering operations in Guangdong has such small margins, they could not afford any change in the pay structure, unless it would be enforced for the whole province, like Guangdong is now proposing for pay rises.

Alibaba needs to go offline in India

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:25:00 +0000

China's top B2B platform Alibaba.com has now also the top position as online market place in India, reports the Financial Times. That looks like a nice achievement, but does not mean that much. What in the comparison between India and China often is forgotten is the internet. China now has 250 million internet users, covering 16 percent of the population and that number is using very fast. India has just over 40 million people online, despite its track record for developing software.
Last month I attended in the Netherlands the Global Wage Indicator conference, on online tool for collecting wage and labor information, and found myself more than once sitting between the representatives of India and China.
Boy, were their problems different. In India you cannot reach enough people if you stay online. In China you need a solid infrastructure for online projects, otherwise you are wiped away by the flood of internet users.
That means that - as Alibaba does - any online operation has to go offline, adding tremendously to the costs.

“I don’t believe it is possible to go into India with a 100 per cent online platform today,” [Alibaba's CEO]Mr Wei told the Financial Times.

In India they join Infomedia, the country's Yellow Pages. Still, they will have a hard job in any way.

Doctoroff hits back: Paul French is wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:17:00 +0000

Tom Doctoroff

"China Guru Clash" Thomas Crampton has already baptized the discussion between Paul French and Tom Doctoroff on China's middle class - at least that is where it started. Yesterday Crampton posted a vitriol attack by Paul French on Tom Doctoroff, CEO of J. Walter Thompson for Greater China, today Doctoroff hits back.

Thomas,

I don’t know what to say. I believe the posting is unbalanced and the tone is bully-boy cocky.

How does one respond to a sweeping statement — at least my book, on the first page, warns of “generalizations” — that yours truly is “wrong about China.”
And then he rails against me, sarcasm dripping, for having the audacity to call myself a “pioneer” when Carl Crow had already seen “everything.” He’s playing a gotcha game gone bad.

Doctoroff denies claims French makes about him claiming to be a pioneer in anything and Doctoroff points out that his so-called "claim to fame", the market introduction of the Buick in China in 1999 was done by Bates, not his firm. The market has changed since the days of Carl Crow, French's hero, says Doctoroff:

He did not see a middle class boasting 150 million people and an auto market with 6 million passenger cars sold per year. He did not see a mass market — now penetrating the rural fringe — snapping up mobile phones and using them to transform their lives. He did not see multinational corporations setting up R&D centers and manufacturing scale on the mainland. He did not see that extraordinary release of energy that resulted from the embrace of capital markets.

More at Thomas Crampton's site.
Both Paul French and Tom Doctoroff are speakers at Chinabiz Speakers. If you are interested in hearing them speak, perhaps even together, do get in touch.

Is this a self-igniting bus?

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:46:00 +0000

A self-igniting bus, easier to recognize after ignition

So, next time when I enter a bus in Shanghai, I should ask the bus driver whether it is a self-igniting bus or not.
I have mostly ignored the news about the exploded bus, on Monday morning's rush hour in Shanghai, but I cannot help but see the media spin doctors getting into action. In the Shanghai Daily incident must have triggered off the creativity of the editors who could not speculate on the possibility it was done by purpose.

The No. 842 bus with at least 30 people onboard "self-ignited" near Huangxing Road and Guoshun Road at 9:15am today and was engulfed in flames and smoke within "several seconds," a witness told Shanghai Daily.

At the Wall Street Journal they could quote the relevant authorities, and they said at least a bit more:

A passenger carrying an unspecified "flammable material" appears to be to blame for the fire, which killed three and injured at least 12, on a crowded commuter bus at rush hour Monday morning, according to a preliminary assessment reported by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. The one sentence dispatch didn't elaborate as to whether the incident was an accident or premeditated.

Defining what makes a medium trustworthy or not is hard, apart f om these incidents, where they obvious have to lie.

Now we have Pi Dan Congee at KFC!

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:02:00 +0000

The Golden China Brands blog has found the most excellent way to attract my attention, well, there are a few more, but food is certainly doing the trick. An excellent story on how KFC, Pizza Hut under their mothership Yum! Brands have introduced new local dishes in China. After being attracted by the good-looking Pi Dan congee at KFC, I actually was literally drawn into their story.
They are already wildly successful with 2,200 outlets (competitor McDonalds is not even coming close) and started now to introduce some very localized dishes.

Yum’s China business is so successful that CEO Novak is now copying the China model to the United States by introducing healthier products in its US outlets, increasing emphasis on breakfast and evening sales and broader menus that include more desserts and beverages. “Let’s learn from our most successful business. Let’s learn from our China Business”, Novak told investors at Yum’s annual shareholder conference in New York.

Are the Wal-Mart trade unions working?

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:32:00 +0000

Since China's only allowed trade union ACFTU started to organize branches at the stores of US retailer Wal-Mart the question has been emerging whether this was the beginning of some real change at the ACFTU or merely window dressing.
China Labor News Translations comes with a first evalution and although its message is optimistic ("The Emergence of Real Trade Unionism In Wal-Mart Stores"), evidence is still rather meagre.

A search of Chinese websites and web blogs reveals a mixed but encouraging story. Although many of the Wal-Mart Trade Unions are indeed under the control and manipulation of Wal-Mart management and local Communist Party organs, at least one has been negotiating with management to remediate labor rights violations and to improve the income and work conditions of its members. Our regret is that based on these web searches alone it is not possible to establish how many have really taken action to further workers’ interests.

More research and certainly time is needed to draw real conclusions. CLNT finds in the end one branche were real negotiations between the trade union and management took place. The article gives four case studies and only in the Nanchang Bayi store there are indications of some real trade union work.

The Nanchang Bayi trade union was clandestinely set up on 14 August 2006. The chair, Gao Haitao, was elected by popular vote. Since then he had fought against Wal-Mart management over one issue after another. It is significant that he had studied law on his own while supporting himself by working at Wal-Mart part-time. In 2005 he passed a nation-wide examine in law and decided to stay on in Wal-Mart as a full-timer. His legal knowledge became his main weapon to fight against Wal-Mart.

The question remains of course whether the ACFTU will be able and willing to take on this massive task and cause a real change. While there is no doubt a sincere intention at the top of the organization and with some of the grass-roots organizers. But turning around this massive dinaurus might be a huge challenge.

Has Carl Crow done everything before?

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:40:00 +0000

Paul French

Thomas Crampton has been talking to quite a few of our speakers at Chinabiz Speakers. Here you can see Paul French, taking on one of our other prominent speakers, Tom Doctoroff. Paul French has been publishing a book on the journalist/entrepreneur Carl Crow, a Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times, and Adventures of an American in Shanghai.
French argues that Doctoroff is wrong in portraying himself as a pioneer in China and that all has been done before the Second World War, indeed by Carl Crow. Folowwing that argument, all honor should probably go to Marco Polo for opeing up China, although he did not yet arrive in a Buick.

Both Paul French and Tom Doctoroff are available as speakers through Chinabiz Speakers. Of course it would be a great idea to have them both together on the stage. Do drop me a line if you are interested.

All is not well on the latest virus

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:39:00 +0000

picture by Shanghaiist

Shanghaiist reports the latest on China's newest viral problem: the hand, foot and mouth disease or EV71(HFMD). The disease has now claimed over 5,000 cases, with 25 casualties. In Fuyang, the source of the outbreak, all kindergardens have been closed for the time being.
I have quite some friends in China who got children over the past few years and they must be really worried, since it takes a while before the spread of the virus, known to peak in June and July, will expose itself.
Shanghai itself has not yet been bit, but that might only be a matter of time. I would keep my children at home for a while, although that might not offer much guarantee either.
This is what wikipedia says about the illness:

HFMD usually affects infants and children, and is quite common. It is highly contagious and is spread through direct contact with the mucus, saliva, or feces of an infected person. It typically occurs in small epidemics in nursery schools or kindergartens, usually during the summer and autumn months. The usual incubation period is 3-7 days.

It is most certainly a different league than the SARS-virus, but there is still reason enough to watch it carefully.

It is naive to think Google does not sell its results - Lonnie Hodge

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:36:00 +0000

Lonnie Hodge

Our speaker Lonnie Hodge was the guest of weblogger Thomas Crampton and sings high praise of China's search engine Baidu. Baidu makes money by selling its search results and asks brand names a million RMB (€100,000) to get associated with those results.

It is naive to think that Google’s results are not for sale?
Google may not be directly involved in the sale of their results, but Hodge pointed out that there is a reason people pay top dollar to search engine specialists. These specialists work for the wealthiest and savviest companies to skew results. “The average SEO specialist in the US with 5 to 7 years of campaign management can command US$100,000 to US$250,000 for his/her talents. That certainly indicates an uneven playing field exists and that the results are dubious at best.”
But the question remains: Are purchased search results unethical?
Hodge praised Baidu for only selling the top four results and putting a line under them and only allowing brands and government agencies to buy their own search results page.

Lonnie Hodge is a speaker at Chinabiz Speakers. If you would like him as a speaker, please drop me a line.

Are companies paying their top-end managers enough?

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:37:00 +0000

via WikipediaOffline I got a few telling stories after writing a few days ago about the complains by larger foreign companies in China about the shortage of qualified managers. I then said the shortage was at least in part a problem created by the companies themselves:

When I talk to these Chinese managers they still feel going back to China would land them in a second rate job, both in financial term and as a part of an international career track.

Since then I got a few confirmations of my argument. What is interesting is that the argument has been left out in the survey of the American Chambers of Commerce. For obvious reasons, suggesting they could solve part of their problem by offering competitive salaries to their higher management in China and offering them a truly international career in stead of making China into a final destination. The companies fear of course they would be opening a Box of Pandorra, unable to close it again.
The possibility of having an international career is as important as the financial argument. Chinese managers - for the sake of the argument I generalize here a bit - was ambitious, they also want to go for the top-jobs in their firms.

Wishfull thinking by "The Economist" under fire

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:24:00 +0000

via WikipediaI had to smile, when I saw this angry comment by Paul Denlinger, who goes at his weblog after the Economist about their attitude towards China. What is the argument? In an editorial The Economist - I believe Paul Denlinger gave up on the magazine after reading this introduction - the main argument is that the current nationalistic fever is quite likely to turn against the Chinese ruling party after it has dealt with the French and Carrefour.
The argument at The Economist:

There is no doubt genuine fury in China at these offences; yet the impression the response gives of a people united behind the government is an illusion. China, like India, is a land of a million mutinies now. Legions of farmers are angry that their land has been swallowed up for building by greedy local officials. People everywhere are aghast at the poisoning of China’s air, rivers and lakes in the race for growth. Hardworking, honest citizens chafe at corrupt officials who treat them with contempt and get rich quick. And the party still makes an ass of the law and a mockery of justice.

I agree very much with Paul on this issue: there is no beginning of an indication that this analysis of The Economist is more than wishful thinking. To summerize Paul Denlinger:

It is exactly this kind of argument which Chinese see as western hypocrisy and double standards. Of course there is anger at some Chinese government policies, but these are a separate issue. Please don’t try to change the subject!

Unfortunately, there is a trend in how "Western" media look to China (and the rest of the world). Lack of facts and too much wishful thinking is a major one. Mostly webloggers are blamed for having this same combination, but the traditional media have here also a longstanding tradition.
Paul Denlinger is a speaker at Chinabiz Speakers, and if you are interested in retaining him as a speaker, do drop me a line.

Help! Now the US has become a police state

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:27:00 +0000

Some sad statistics about the US, quoted from not the China Daily but the New York Times by Silicon Valley Watcher. While the United States have about five percent of the world's population, they have 25 percent of the world's inmates. Compared to any other country, the United States is a huge prison for a large part of their population.
Of course, the country to compare with is China:

. . . The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London. China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison.

In terms of prisoners per capita only Russia come close. Interesting fodder for any human rights discussion.

New visa regulations are here to stay - overview

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Harder to have residency in China
via WikipediaI justed walking into this comprehensive briefing by the One-Eyed Panda's journal on the current visa regulations in China, based on notes made during an AmCham briefing. It offers little knew compared to what we have already seen in other sources, but puts all the different elements nicely together.
A few elements were new and this is the biggest one I have seen:

These regulations will most like last after the Olympics. The government is really cracking down on F visa holders who are actually residents inside China as they are really residents here, and should therefore be on residency and work permits and be paying taxes.

It means that F-visa will no longer work as a way to have residence in China. Well, at least until the regulations will change again, and they have always changed in a positive or negative way.

Deadly virus keeps on spreading

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:39:00 +0000

This other plague from Egypt hurting China, the foot and mouth disease, has started to cause panic as more than 3,000 people fell sick and a 21th child died, writes the International Herald Tribune, quoting state-media in China.

On Thursday the World Health Organization warned that the disease, which thrives in warm weather, could spread in the coming months. It advised child-care centers and schools to stay closed until the spread of new infections was curtailed.
The virus, which has no relation to the foot-and-mouth disease that infects livestock, is easily passed between children. The illness begins with a fever and often leads to mouth ulcers and blisters on the hands, feet and buttocks. There is no vaccine or cure, but most patients recover in a week without treatment. In severe cases, however, brain swelling can lead to paralysis or death. Rigorous hygiene dramatically reduces the spread of the pathogen, which is an enterovirus known as EV71.

Rumor: Multiple entry visas cancelled at the border

noreply@blogger.com (Fons Tuinstra) — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:43:00 +0000

via WikipediaAllroadleadtoChina is on top of another breaking visa story that might have strong repercussions for business travelers to China: multi-entry F-visas are being canceled at the border. Visitors can only stay in China for 30 days and for a next visit they have to go through the new more stringent rules for China visas, that would exclude multiple entries.
Rich warns this is only an unconfirmed rumor from the third hand, but he has been remarkable accuraat in the past and the move would fit into the current changes for visas into China.
This change would dramatically increase the bureaucracy for frequent China travelers, many who would not get even a single-entry visa in Hong Kong anymore but would have to return to their home countries.
It also shows that recent protests by the Chambers in China, because the restrictions would hurt ongoing business very much, did not have any effect.